t others from this discrimination and stigmatization, I find it relevant to get a more in-depth understanding in what can cause the stigma, what can reduce stigma and what can be done [like social support programmes] for people in order to cope with stigma, for example within a community. Community belonging will be of high relevance in this research as inclusivity, that is being part of a group, can help PLWHA in seeking support and coping with their illness. Moreover, as I will elaborate on further in my theoretical framework, studies in the past have focussed mainly on people that stigmatize rather than on people that are being stigmatized and on HIV-related stigma in relation to individuals, and not in relation to communities (Aggleton and Parker 2003: 15). In my research therefore I focus on the stigmatized interdependent individual as part of a community. I will conduct this research in communities in informal settlements in Cape Town in cooperation with Yabonga, an NGO that helps PLWHA and their families to cope and live with HIV through support programmes.

This research aims to examine the sense of community belonging of community X, that is, what it entails for the residents of the informal settlements [X] in Cape Town whom I have as my research population, and to what extent Yabonga initiatives shape this feeling of being part of a community. Moreover, this research will look at how, and if, prevailing HIV-related stigma in a community affects this sense of community belonging and how, and if, Yabonga with its programmes influences the stigma. Furthermore, by investigating what causes the stigma, what creates the sense of belonging and what are the mechanisms that move back and forth between stigma and belonging as a process, such as for example the intersection of HIV with race, gender and class, the stereotyping of women associated mainly with this disease, the myths around HIV-infection and transmission, the lack of knowledge and the traditional beliefs about the cause of HIV/AIDS, this research tries to give a more in-depth understanding of the relation between community belonging and stigma.

Furthermore, this research tries to explain what it is like being HIV-infected and the meaning of community belonging for the HIV-positive women in the Yabonga programmes through the eyes of Yabonga staff members and what the implications are of being infected with HIV. Using qualitative data I hope to be able to shed light on the interplay between the notion of belonging and the effects/implications of HIV-relate